Gators a Top 5 team in SI.com’s first college hoops power rankings

With Midnight Madness taking place Friday night across the country, Sports Illustrated has released its first edition of the college hoops power rankings for the 2012-13 season.

Luke Winn ranks the Gators as the No. 5 team in the nation. Following is why:

There’s nothing more eye-roll inducing than the genre of preseason story in which we’re supposed to take Player X’s word that he used the summer to become a leader, become more vocal, find confidence, gain experience, fix all of his flaws and get into the best shape of his life. Which is why I’m fond of Gators forward Patric Young: He actually tweets videos of absurd workout routines that suggest he’ll be in absurdly good shape this season. If you can push a Nissan Frontier around, keeping Nerlens Noel off the blocks should be pretty easy.

(I hope Young’s newfound ferocity means he’ll out-defensive-rebound all of the guards on his team this season. Last year, he was beaten by 6-3 Bradley Beal in that category, 18.2 percent to 16.3 percent.)

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